Por Fin

Hello friends...so I've had these photos uploaded for a while but just now am getting around to adding commentary. I'd like to get better at updating this thing but I've been saying that pretty much since I started it so we'll see. It's not like I don't have anything to update on, I just haven't made the time. So with the hope of more frequent posts, I leave you with some photos I hope you enjoy, in no particular order.

Be well.

-This video was shot during the consult portion of one of our children's brigades with some nursing students from the University of Cincinnati. I walked in and was struck by everything going on at once...4 or 5 consults, translating, mothers waiting, kids being attended to...I think the video does a good job of showing the awesomeness of what was going on.

A group of us moving a satellite dish. The drama with satellite dishes is never-ending it seems. Believe it or not I've learned a good bit about satellite dishes while down here. I've mostly learned that I don't ever want to see another one again.

Below is a group photo from March of an awesome brigade made up of nursing and nurse practitioner students from both the University of Kansas and Montana State University. We had a LOT of fun with this group and saw over 1000 kids in the week they were here. Even better I now enjoy drinking my morning coffee from an excellent Montana State mug. Thanks guys! (what you don't see in this photo is me holding approximately 75 cameras. This is standard practice with most groups, as it seems few people grasp the digital age.)

This is the view of our clinic "campus" in Concepción. For the last 20 years our main base has been in a town called Santa Lucía, where I live. Soon the base will move to this new, more cenral location, while maintaining a strong presence in Santa Lucía as well. We inaugurated these buildings in February and will finally start seeing patients in July

A quick ten-minute hike takes you up a hill to a great 360-degree view. A group of us from the Kansas/Montana State group made the short journey and got a somewhat rare clear shot of the mountains in the distance.

My good pal/co-worker/roommate Alex hanging out with Tina. Tina works in the UC College of Nursing and brings lots of groups down throughout the year. Alex first got involved with Shoulder to Shoulder through one of these brigades, so in a way we have Tina to thank for that.

Playing with the same satellite dish you saw earlier. This is not a staged photo, this is my Honduran version of a blue-tooth so I could talk to Art and still use both my hands. If it's one thing the third-world teaches you it's how to make useful things with little resources available.

Students waiting at a Children's Brigade to be seen. A group of 12-20 brigade members show up to a school with the goal of doing well-child visits with all the 0-15 year olds. It's a great way to hit a lot of patients at once and utilize the skills our brigades bring down.

This is the sunrise after a very early-morning hike up a mountain in Santa Lucía. I need to do this more often, it provided some hard-to-find peace and quiet for a little while.

A group of our employees after work enjoying each other's company. All are from Santa Lucía or nearby. I just thought it was a really cool photo. From left to right: Doris, Gisela, Norma, Mercedes, Raúl

We can get pretty goofy down here sometimes. A lot may stem from us being delirious...or we're all just hilarious, who knows. While setting up the newly constructed maternity center in the clinic, we found that the first baby to be born in it was quite mature! From left to right: Edgar, Brett, Alex, Seiko, Janell

During our clinic inauguration in February, the Honduran minister of Health showed up in his chopper, covering everyone with dust. If you look closely you can pick me out in the back of the red pick-up on the left. I'm the guy with the hair.

Cheap repair of the power-steering pump hose. I took a page from the book of Bolivian engineering and wrapped the hose with some rubber (like a bike innertube) and then wrapped with some duct tape. This was in February and it's still going strong.

The porch in one of the cottages in Concepción. This is where I usually crash when I have to stay the night, there is a great cool evening breeze and you can't beat the morning view.

Inauguration day with Art and Ed Zuroweste. I look grumpy likely from not sleeping. Ed has not shaved his beard in over 30 years, it's something to shoot for.

Emerging from the helicopter dust.

This photo captures what I've come to expect as a typical day when there's a lot going on. Computer open looking at email, coffee closeby, on the phone probably talking to one of my drivers about where he's headed next, in the midst of a meeting with the excellent Dr. Emily Harrison, head of our affiliate group from Brown University. We are putting the finishing touches on an outlying clinic her group built, having raised the money all on her own. Emily bought her way into my heart with gifts that included a pound+ bag of M&Ms and a Brown University hat! It was a good day.

Ranzaganza in Honduras! Left to right: Ginger, Art, Brett, Me

Enjoying the company of some good friends on a non-school night. We are quite the dysfunctional loving family down here. From left to right: Yaniré, Edgar, Juan, Janell

The day of the inauguration there were guards that showed up with the Minister of Health. When asked if I could borrow his machine gun for a quick photo, the guard did not hesitate and had it off of his neck in no time. I'm highly confident there were no bullets. Either way, Alex makes a great security guard.

Nearby the Concepción clinic is a great little swimming hole with an excellent waterfall. There is a great jumping rock and a good place to stand to get a water-massage. If it looks like I'm on the phone, it's because I am...I'm pretty sure I was in the midst of getting a truckload of 21,000 pounds of nutrition supplement across the Guatemala border into Honduras. Just another average Sunday here at Shoulder to Shoulder.

Brett and I managed a little R&R in early March...this was our stash of goodies before we set out. The trip included fresh seafood, driving for hours through trees and across rivers up a dark jungle road, bribing police officers and also stumbling upon an excellent find: a micro-brewery run by an Oregon ex-pat. Needless to say we have visited multiple times since this discovery.

Also on said journey we saw this sweet waterfall. Please note awesome braids in my hair from the beach!

The Kansas/Montana State crew giving consults on Childrens Health brigade.

This is our new friend Alicia, a Honduran Peace Corps volunteer from Seattle. Her site is near the aforementioned micro-brewery and through a random connection we managed to meet her. Alex and I got to do some hiking with her and her dog Chelsea around easter time.

These photos only take you up through early April, and so much has happened since then. All of this seems so long ago now...it's crazy how the time flies on by...